Rodrigo Campos, Pode Ser Outra Beleza – No dense arranging smarts. No odd instrumentation to push samba into new areas. With almost nothing more than his voice and guitar, Campos strips down his sambas as bare as they can go. He still tricks out those riffs (just close your eyes and listen to his quiet ..read more

Editor’s Note: My Carne Doce/Salma e Mac posts had gotten kind of scattered, so I am bringing them together (with rewrites where needed) into this one post. You can listen to and buy band albums here, and Salma e Mac albums here. Carne Doce—sweet flesh, although you could also translate it as sweet meat/beef, but ..read more

Aguidavi do Jêje, Aguidavi do Jêje (2023) – Perscussion. Lots of percussion. Sometimes nothing but percussion and voice. Always impressive, but also, as percussion albums can do, a bit repetitive. It’s best when they add a little guitar or something to the mix to provide a fixed point around which that percussion can dazzle you as it flows. So I wish I’d put the Gilberto Gil guest spot “Violão de Cabaça” on my 2023 playlist. The rest I might put on when I want to admire Afro-Brazilian rhythms. You might get a lot more out of it if you love percussion albums. Listen and buy here. Grade: B- Brun ..read more

Anitta, Funk Generation – Brazil’s reigning superstar didn’t get to the top by sucking, so of course she puts out competent+ albums. Formally, the most interesting thing about her latest is that only one of the 15 songs passes the three minute mark, which means its assembly line funk doesn’t have time to get stale. But as great as this may sound in the club, in a more reflective listening place it’s hard to distinguish her from the competition. Where Billie and Olivia and even the boring-to-me Taylor manage to assert an artistic identity within the pop machine, Anitta is merely its product. Mu ..read more

Looking back over my previous top ten lists, 2023 holds up well. The longer I’ve been at this, the more proficient I’ve gotten to finding good albums thanks to a mix of algorithms and sources. Also my ears get more and more attuned to the aural feel of music from Brazil: whenever I take a break from Brazil, it’s not too long before I miss the cadences of its sounds. Eventually I’ll stop doing this. (I actually put out fewer posts in 2023 than I did in any previous year.) But even when I stop doing the blog, I’m confident I’ll listen to the music I’ve discovered through it until I can’t listen ..read more

After a couple of years of just listing stuff until I got bored, this year I limited my playlist to 40 songs. I also emphasized tracks from albums that won’t make my top ten list, albeit those albums had to land some songs here because I loved them so much. But I’ll note that my top two albums of 2023—I’ll let you see the list in a week or two; I’m still testing it to see if it holds—don’t land a song on here, and only six of the 15 or so albums I graded A- or higher place here. I stand by all 40 tracks here, however. Two hours and 18 minutes of delight. And, sure, you got your bossas and samb ..read more

Bixarte, Traviarcado – Maybe it’s the northeastern rhythms and the commitment to place they represent. Or maybe she’s just better at making music, but Bixarte’s latest tops all the stars I recently summed up in my pop overview. Nine songs in 28 minutes never let up as beats and personality carry you along. Listen here. Grade: B+ Cabezadenego, Mbé and Leyblack, Mimosa – Performance artist Luiz Felipe Lucas (dba Cabezadenego) and producers Mbé and Leyblack worked on this celebration of Brazilian rhythm during a shared residency at the Etopia Centro de Arte e Tecnologia in Zaragoza, Spain. Fourte ..read more

The good stuff that won’t quite make the cut for my 2023 wrap up. Plus a stinker or two. ÀTTØØXXÁ, Groove – One hundred percent black music, the cover promises, and as long as you’re not silly enough to think that’s just a North American thing, the album delivers. Producer Rafa Dias and his bandmates put Bahia front and center in their international dance music, so it manages to fit contemporary dance music aesthetics while remaining thoroughly and proudly Brazilian. If the 13 tracks begin to sound samey, well old people like me aren’t the audience, and those who are are probably too busy part ..read more

As much as I prefer to focus on more traditional Brazilian musics as they are mutated for our moment, let’s not kid ourselves. Alt-samba is no more popular there than alt-rock is here. These are musics for subcultures and critics. The wider audience in Brazil, and more or less worldwide, is swept up in the same pop/hip hop/country (sertanejo) vibe that’s dominated American markets for the past couple of decades. And, some hip hop aside, I barely touch that here. So a column to rectify that a bit. May I introduce (or maybe just reintroduce) you to Anitta, Ludmilla, Luísa Sonza, and, Pablo Vitta ..read more

Patrícia Bastos, Voz da Taba – Singer from Macapá whose excellent Zulusa was a fave of 2013. Here she draws again upon the beatier traditions of Brazil’s northeast for eleven sinuous tracks that sound as rooted in central Africa as they do Brazil, especially the soukous-tinged guitar work. Of course there are 13 tracks, so skip the duds that lead and close the album to revel in a sound that’s pure up. Listen here. Grade: A- Bixiga 70, Vapor – Hands down the best album from this estimable band mostly because they are playing for the studio rather than the show. Earlier albums showcased a band w ..read more